Gop Unmoved

By Clinton Plea

For Health Bill

July 28, 1994|Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — The political rhetoric over health care took on an even harder edge on Wednesday as President Clinton proclaimed that he "desperately" wanted a bipartisan bill but said Republicans retreated each time he reached out to them.

GOP leaders were unmoved by Clinton's entreaty during a South Lawn rally commemorating the fourth anniversary of the enactment of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

"If we didn't pass it, my view is there might be a big sigh of relief around the country," said Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., as he emerged from a GOP strategy session.

The exchange came as Democratic leaders in both houses raced to complete separate health care bills for floor debate next month.

With the outlines of the House Democratic leadership bill already known, the focus is riveted on efforts of Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, D-Maine, to draft a compromise that stands some chance of passage - "a difficult task," he said on Wednesday.

In its current state, Mitchell's bill would seek universal coverage without imposing an employer mandate unless voluntary measures failed to provide coverage to at least 95 percent of the population, perhaps by 2001. Even then, it would exempt some small businesses, sources said.

The sources also said that a competing provision being floated privately would impose an employer mandate only on a state-by-state basis. In essence, only states that had not reached a target for coverage - probably 95 percent of their populations - by a certain date would be subject to an employer requirement.

The House bill, being assembled by Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo., is a clone of that produced by the Ways and Means Committee and could be ready by Friday.